


Bachelors

by lintwhite



Category: Vinland Saga (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-08
Updated: 2012-08-08
Packaged: 2017-11-11 18:07:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/481351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lintwhite/pseuds/lintwhite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thorfinn tries to find a new apartment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bachelors

It was early on a Wednesday morning, when Thorfinn awoke to the sickly sweet scent of weed and chicken frying, that he decided maybe it was time to stop crashing on scratchy mattresses and get a place of his own.

Thorkell stood stark naked over the grungy stove top, singing "Don't Stop Believin'" at the top of his lungs and tending to a chicken leg. A wadded clump of pilfered Wendy's napkins sat sopping grease from a breast on the counter.

"Um." Thorfinn cleared his throat loudly.

Thorkell almost tipped the frying pan over on himself. "Thorfinn! Shit, man, you almost - whoo, I think this one's done." He made room on his napkins and grabbed a wing from a Styrofoam container and slid it in. "You hungry?"

Thorfinn wondered vaguely where the chicken came from. "No, I'm...I was thinking, um. Like, I appreciate you letting me stay here and everything but...you remember that ad I saw yesterday? I was thinking of calling."

"Really?" Grease popped. "I think that's a good idea. Get back on your feet, maybe get a job? I think that's a great idea."

Thorfinn had barely turned the key in the lock when the door hit a pile of tattered suitcases. A Post-It note was stuck to the top, "YOUR STUFF" scrawled hastily on it. Then Thorfinn laid down on the couch and began watching Seinfeld reruns and from out of nowhere, Canute came bursting into the living room, screaming.

Thorfinn showed up on Thorkell's doorstep an hour later, suitcases in tow. It was the one and only time Thorfinn could remember having ever been kicked out of a place because of an argument about Gloria Estefan CDs.

Thorkell's apartment was small and messy and smelled of scents Thorfinn could never place. There were never any dishes. The mattress Thorfinn temporarily called his own lay under a window with a perpetual crack in it and cool air wafted in during the night and he shivered under the threadbare quilt. And now Thorkell was in danger of getting a grease burn on his Johnson as he light another blunt absentmindedly.

Thorfinn went in search of yesterday's paper.

\---

The apartment was a few blocks from the one Thorfinn had had the misfortune of living in for seven months. It was on the second floor in a building without an elevator. Thorfinn kept glancing up at the apartment number and back down on the one written on the back of an old bill in fading Sharpie. Before he could knock, the door opened.

The man who stood in the doorway had the beginnings of a beard and wore paint-splattered jeans. He broke into an awkward smile and extended a hand. "Nice to meet you...Thorfinn, was it?" His voice was softer than it had been on the phone.

"Yeah. Nice to meet you." Had the man said his name over the phone? Thorfinn couldn't remember and felt strange as stepped inside. No, he had. It had started with an E.

"So, this is the place. Not much but at least it's something, right?" The guy laughed. "Kitchen's that way, bedrooms are that way. Um."

The apartment was as nondescript as Thorkell's - a lumpy brown couch, a black, flimsy entertainment center, a few posters on the wall. There weren't any unrecognizable smells and Thorfinn took that as a good sign.

A few minutes later, Thorfinn and the nameless man were having a beer on the brown couch, which was more comfortable that it had looked. The man was nervously talkative and kept running his hand through his hair when he ran out of things to say.

"So, as long as you don't mind taking the steps and listening to the neighbors squabble, y'know, typical apartment stuff, I guess...y'know...you could move in today."

Thorfinn had been staring at a stack of CDs in the corner. "Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess I could." He had noticed actual, honest-to-God dishes stacked against one another on a dish towel in the little kitchen and he thought of Thorkell eating his chicken off an old CD case. He also thought of Canute furiously scrubbing dried ketchup off a porcelain plate and casting looks at Thorfinn as he had sat eating Lucky Charms at the table and he wasn't quite sure why.

"Let me get my stuff."


End file.
